RT: Moscow dismisses talk of gold reserves trapped abroad

Russia says all of its reserves are held in the country’s central bank vaults

The Russian central bank on Friday dismissed media speculation that gold reserves have been taken out of the country and are being held abroad. Western media began reporting the rumor after the US and EU authorities hinted of possible sanctions targeting Russian gold.

All the gold from our gold and foreign exchange reserves is in the vaults of the Bank of Russia on the territory of our country,” the regulator stated on its website.

source: RT

Status in Ukraine

The Saker published a “pretty decent map” of the military status in Ukraine, which I’m reposting here:

Basically, things moved very quickly at first, but are now at the point where the Russians are trying to find a balance between trying to destroy the Ukrops, and trying not to kill the civilians, behind whom the Ukrops are hiding. They are also routinely destroying ammunition, weapons and fuel stockpiles deeply in the Western Ukraine. They are also very carefully avoiding the agricultural areas, because that could cause severe famine. Basically, this is the gentlest and most considerate form of warfare I ever saw.

Unprincipled alliances and behaviour of America

Basically, America will ally themselves with absolutely any kind of scum if it’s helpful in achieving their goals – Al Qaeda is fine, the Nazis are fine, it’s all good as long as it hurts the Russians or the Syrians or the Chinese or whoever is the enemy of the day. They would ally themselves with the devil if it were useful to them, and all the talk about international law enters the scene only when it’s useful – but when they invade countries, there’s no mention of international law. It all looks insane if you wrongly assume that Americans are principled and virtuous, but if you drop those assumptions and see them as an inherently amoral and unprincipled self-serving actor, then suddenly everything makes sense and their behaviour is perfectly consistent and logical.